May 2001.

May was the first month that the pond was built. I will update this page with more details soon but we have put in the water plants, snails and some golden rudd and we are making good progress on digging the flower beds around the pond.

Here is the pond at the end of May. The flower beds around it are half dug and I've started to put some plants in. I have seeded the whole back area with hardy annuals which are both pretty and cheap!

You can see I've knocked up a sort of makeshift low level seat with some bricks and paving slabs - this is to sit or stand on so that we do not sit on the rock wall which of course is built on to the liner.

You can see how much clearer the water has become in a few weeks. I did however cheat and put and algae mat in for a week before we went away but the water has remained clear since I removed it.

Here are are the water hyacinths that I bought when I got the fish. I think they look at bit plastic myself but they add to the cover for the fish to hide in. The fish are still pretty nervous and tend to hang around in the crevasses between the rocks at the side - it's probably better that way as they will be less likely to get fished out by cats or herons. They don't seem to be making much impression on the mosquito larvae but I'm sure they'll get the hang of it!!

I've started to put alpine plants in some of the crevasses between the rocks as well.

I managed to get some really good candelabra primulas while on holiday in Devon so here's hoping that they don't get eaten by the snails.

Talking of snail damage here is the damage that the great water snails have done to one of my lillys. However this may be due the there not being enough for them to eat and I am hoping that this will get better as the plants grow. Something is still fishing the great water snails out and eating them at the side of the pond - obviously it has worked out they are easier to eat than the ramshorns!!

The lillies and water hawthorne are all a bit pathetic at the moment - I'm tempted to get a couple more.